June 6, 2020Ellen Dostal – Broadway World “May you live in interesting times,” has taken on new meaning in 2020 amid the current world health crisis. No one could have imagined a scenario like this where theater doors would be forced to close indefinitely. And yet, they have. But you can’t dampen the heart of an artistRead More

March 3, 2020Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In a Rorschach test, an individual is presented with a series of abstract images and asked what they see. Their answers are used by the administering psychiatrist or psychologist to gain insight into that person’s state of mind. Open Fist Theater Company’s current production is titled Rorschach Fest. Presented asRead More

February 27, 2020Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen It all begins with a note on a car and a case of mistaken identity. Found, a musical based on the books and magazines of the same name by Davy Rothbart, opened this past weekend in its west coast premiere at IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles. ReadRead More

February 22, 2020Jonas Schwartz – Broadway World After two successful runs in Los Angeles in 2012 and 2014 at the Pantages, that smut-mouthed, but endearing musical comedy The Book Of Mormon has squatted downtown at the Ahmanson, and third time around, it has lost none of its luster, or its smut. Read more… Now running through MarchRead More

February 22, 2020Rob Stevens – Haines His Way A middle-aged couple wake up one morning naked in bed. The woman gently removes his hand from her breast, dons a handy silk robe and is off to the kitchen to make coffee. The man soon follows. Read more… Now running through March 15

February 19, 2020Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw Hamlet The Rock Musical has had a few iterations since it debuted in 1973 with the title Kronberg 1582. It was commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where it was part of a larger radio program. In 1976, it ran on Broadway for seven shows as Rockabye Hamlet, andRead More

February 19, 2020Terry Morgan - Stage Raw Poverty and homelessness and what to do about them are hardly new matters of concern. King Lear berates his newly-found conscience thus: “Poor naked wretches…how shall your houseless heads and unfed sides…defend you from seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en too little care of this!” Read more… MargaretRead More

Archive for Ruskin Group Theatre

The Joy Wheel is an amiable situation comedy that deals with a crisis in the lives of an older married couple. Written by Ian McRae and directed by Jason Alexander, it’s one of those entertainment-minded vehicles that can come off as either a shallow on-stage sitcom, where garnering laughs is the performers’ main goal, or, if aptly directed, as an insightful comic portrayal of human fallibility.Read more…

In his 1987 solo show, Time Flies When You’re Alive, writer/performer Paul Linke relayed the story of his first wife’s battle with breast cancer, the impact of her illness on his family, and the heartbreak of her death at age 37. The couple had three small children at the time, the youngest just turned a year. Read more…

Lorraine Hansberry is securely enshrined as an important black playwright, but what few people remember nowadays is that she was also a lovely young woman, with gamin charm and an impish sense of humor. Read more…

Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze

“What happens to a dream deferred?” asked Langston Hughes in his 1951 poem “Harlem.” “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

Too many deferred dreams have been keeping the Younger family tamped down, in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1958 classic “A Raisin in the Sun,” getting a thoughtful revival at Santa Monica’s Ruskin Group Theatre. Read more…

In just over an hour, Scottish playwright Gary McNair’s affectionate portrait of the rise and fall of an inveterate gambler manages to span 45 years, chart a grandson’s disillusionment and recovery of faith in his hero, mull the randomness of the universe, and probe the legacy of any human life. And at just over an hour, the Ruskin Group Theatre’s Los Angeles premiere of A Gambler’s Guide to Dying manages to feel a shade too long. Read more…

Ruskin Group Theatre has revived the Canadian classic “Leaving Home,” David French’s heavily autobiographical first play. It’s in some ways an odd choice for the little Los Angeles theater.

Although its theme—intergenerational misunderstanding—is universal, the story is rooted in a specific and remote cultural context, the concerns of which seem unlikely to resonate with audiences here on a visceral level (not a lot of Catholic-hating Orangemen in Santa Monica these days). Read more…

In Robin Uriel Russin’s new dramedy, family members from three generations quarrel during a Passover Seder – this Seder being especially significant for the protagonist Christina (Stacey Moseley) because it’s her first since she converted from the Catholic faith to Judaism. Read more…

In TALHOTBLOND:, a working man falls for a hot woman he meets in an internet chatroom. His increasing obsession has a dramatic impact on his work and home lives.

Playwright Kathrine Bates has developed an oeuvre taking real life crimes as the starting point for her dramas. Her most notable work is The Manor, a hugely popular and long running production that takes audiences on a tour of one of Los Angeles most majestic and storied homes, Greystone Manor in the Trousdale Estates.

For TALHOTBLOND:, however, Bates takes a true-life story that feels a little past its use-by date…

This comic extravaganza, written by Ron House, Diz White, Alan Shearman and John Neville-Andrews and first produced in 1971, went on to become an international hit. Now the Ruskin Group brings it back, and to insure it retains its original comic glory, two of the original creators have returned: Shearman provides the direction and musical direction, and House reprises his role as the irrepressible emcee Senor Don Pepe Hernandez, presenter of “Parada de las Estrellas.”